Chestnuts will be roasting

Wednesday

Nov 28, 2012 at 7:00 PM

Kirk Snyder will be roasting chestnuts in front of The Barista on Saturday afternoon about 4 p.m. Everybody has heard the Christmas song that starts, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ...” but how many of us have actually tasted a roasted chestnut?

Bette McFarren

Kirk Snyder will be roasting chestnuts in front of The Barista on Saturday afternoon about 4 p.m. Everybody has heard the Christmas song that starts, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ..." but how many of us have actually tasted a roasted chestnut?

Snyder said he had never tasted chestnuts, either, until his daughter brought some down from Denver a few years ago. "We roasted them for the folks out here at the ranch," said Snyder, "just something to do for Christmas." Snyder is still at CBR YouthConnect, looking for a way to repurpose the facility.

"Not everybody likes them," said Snyder, "but I do. They don't taste like the nuts we're used to. They're soft, and kinda yellow." A girl who was raised in the Queens in New York City was working at the ranch. Her fondest Christmas memories were of walking down the street in the city and smelling the chestnuts roasting at the vendors' stands.

Snyder explained that one side of the shell is harder than the other. Cut an X in the soft side or a half-moon between the hard and the soft side before roasting. When the chestnuts are done, they sort of pop open a little. Checking on roasting on the Internet, one discovers that they need to be shelled when they are warm, because they tend to harden up again.

"You can roast them in the microwave," he said. "Put six in at a time and roast for 30 seconds. They twirl around like tops."

The Internet man, Zel Allen, thinks the best way to cook chestnuts is to boil them in a large saucepan in about three inches of water about 25 minutes for the large Asian chestnuts purchased in the market and about 35 minutes for chestnuts grown in the U.S.

First, using a firm, sharp paring knife, make a horizontal cut completely across the rounded side of each chestnut. If both sides are flat, make the cut across one of the sides.

Then prepare a cup of tea for yourself and sit down at the table with the pot of cooked chestnuts on a trivet. Have a bowl handy for the peeled chestnuts and another for the shells. Take out three or four at a time and peel them.

Or, you can roast them in the oven at 425 after making a criss-cross cut in the soft side. One reviewer said she turns off the oven after 25 minutes and then lets them sit in the oven for the next 10 to 15 minutes. She says they come out perfect. The original recipe advises shaking the pan so that they cook evenly.

Looks like a subject for experimentation. Safeway has chestnuts, said Snyder. They closely resemble big acorns. Also looks like a project in which a klutz could cut or burn her hands pretty easily.